Sunday, August 22, 2004

UN fears Sudan crisis worsening and warns of refugee exodus

The UN warns that thousands of displaced persons in the Darfur region of Sudan could cross to Chad if no credible measures are taken to make them feel secure inside.

Jean-Marie Fakhouri, the new director of operations in Sudan for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, made his warning Friday two days after he met 300 representatives for about 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Those talks took place in Masteri, a large village "swollen with the arrival of people displaced from other communities across the region," the UNHCR said in a news release.

The agency said it was concerned that "such an influx of 30,000 refugees in one single spot along the Chad-Sudan border, if it were to materialize, would put a strain on our ability to care for and feed refugees in our camps there."

This is the latest grim issue involving Sudan's Darfur, regarded across the globe as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
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